History of VUIs on mobile devices

In 2006, Apple introduced the concept of Siri, which allows users to interact with machines using their voice. In 2007, Google followed Apple and introduced voice searches. In 2011, Apple finally brought Siri concepts into reality by integrating Siri into iOS and iPhones. But unfortunately, with Steve Jobs' death that same year, the voice innovations from Apple slowed down, allowing others, such as Google and Amazon, to catch up. In 2015, Microsoft introduced Cortana for the Windows 10 operating system and smart phones (refer to the following screenshot). In 2016, Google introduced Google Assistant (refer to the following screenshot) to mobile devices. Later, from Chapter 3, Build a Fortune Cookie Application, to Chapter 5, Deploying the Fortune Cookie App to Google Home, you will learn how to create voice assistant applications for mobile devices. One of the major advantages of writing applications for Google Assistant is that the same applications you write for Google Assistant can also be deployed to Google Home.

The following illustration depicts screenshots of the mobile voice assistants Cortana, Siri, and Google Assistant: